Merlot

Soft plush Merlot with the black olive flavours of Cabernet Sauvignon?s impressive structure both add great balance to this powerful wine from Clearview Estate in Hawke?s Bay. Flavours here are dark and brooding black olives, dried woody thyme with all its aromatic intensity, supported by the velvety smoothness of Malbec, which makes up a small portion of this wine. 

This is a wine that drinks well now and can age to evolve even more impressive flavours for up to 10 years. 

About Clearview Estate

Clearview Estate is one of oldest, most well established wineries in Hawke's Bay and is situated on the Te Awanga Coast, south of Napier. It's a great place to visit for tastings at the cellar door as well as lunch in the dappled shade of the established courtyard area. The winery was founded by Tim Turvey, winemaker and co-owner. The current winemaker is the multi talented Matt Kirby.

Great Esk Valley blend from the great 2020 vintage and made entirely from grapes grown on stony soils of Gimblett Gravels. This wine is one of the top 12 Gimblett Gravels Annual Vintage Selection wines for 2020. It's a blend of Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, fermented in open top concrete fermenters and hand plunged. Deeply coloured and complex with jammy and plummy notes.

The Malbec provides smoothness and depth with soft plummy flavours from the Merlot and structure from the Cabernet.

This top drop drinks well now and will also age well for seven to eight years.

The star of the M?doc, Cabernet Sauvignon is given pride of place in this French expression of a classic left bank Bordeaux red blend. Its structured body provides a beautiful wintery night's red to enjoy by the fire with cheddar and great company. 

This is a wine made for drinking now or over the next two to three years. 

Winemaker Notes

Blend: 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot

Critical Acclaim

WE93

Wine Enthusiast

Produced by the team of Calon S?gur, this wine is stylish and elegant while also full of the Saint-Est?phe tannic structure. Fresh and fruity, it is also firm and tannic. Drink this spicy, juicy wine from 2025.

JS92

James Suckling

This is structured and very linear with superfine and polished tannins. It?s full-bodied yet reserved and held back with such tension and focus. Full-bodied, fine and chewy on the finish. Better in 2020.

D90

Decanter

Great freshness of bountiful, ripe fruit and fine ripeness from 68% Cabernet. A lovely wine from perfectly managed vineyards.

JD90

Jeb Dunnuck

A rocking wine from the northern M?doc is the 2015 Ch?teau Capbern and it?s 68% Cabernet Sauvignon, 28% Merlot and 4% Petit Verdot brought up in 60% new barrels. This medium to full-bodied, ripe, impressively concentrated beauty boasts outstanding notes of ripe black cherry and currant fruits intermixed with lots of crushed flower and damp earth/clay-like nuances. It has terrific purity and ripe, yet present, tannin and will benefit from a couple years in the cellar. It?s a little gem that will be loved by old-school Bordeaux lovers. Tasted twice.

The Blanc is pale yellow in colour, with green highlights. The bouquet is strong and characterful, with aromas of broom flower, citrus fruit, peaches, and apricots. The wine is elegant, delicate and quite vivacious on the palate.

Grape 80% Semillon, 20% Sauvignon Blanc

Food match oysters, mussels, fish

Puriri Hills - The vineyard is set in green rolling hills southeast of Auckland, New Zealand, just outside of the village of Clevedon. From the main road, a long driveway climbs past vineyards which produced their first handmade, blended red wine in 1999. Grown and produced entirely on the property, the wines are gaining recognition as serious contenders to the best right bank Bordeaux.

Region: Clevedon, Auckland
Varietal: Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Carmenere, Malbec

Te Mata Awatea is often described as a baby Coleraine and is one of Hawke's Bay's most iconic red wines. First made in 1982 as a classic blend of Bordeaux red grape varieties, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Proportions vary each year and the wine was declassified in 2012 due to a cool vintage and the need to separate the two wines, Coleraine and Awatea. Both are excellent and both deliver robust classic reds for drinking now or cellaring for the long term. Awatea delivers excellent value for money for its consistently outstanding quality, great balance of dry spicy flavours and dark fruit forward approachability. 

Te Mata Estate is Hawke's Bay's oldest winery building and one of its oldest wineries; a family owned company with an eye on producing great New Zealand wines modelled on and inspired by the world's classic great wines.

Impressive full bodied red from the great 2020 vintage and 100% Gimblett Gravels grown grapes. The dark colour and blackberry, blackcurrant and plum flavours come from a blend led by 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc and 15% Merlot. The winemaker is Paul Mooney - long term winemaker at Mission Estate - and he gave the finished wine 12 months of maturation in French oak, 60% new. Not that you'd know it. This beautifully balanced blend works superbly with this relatively high portion of new oak and tastes smooth, dark and impressively complex. Drinking beautifully now and can age superbly for up to a decade.

Fabulous example of structured black fruited Bordeaux offering superb value for money with dark summer berry flavours, notes of dried thyme and black olives combining in a wine of complexity. Smooth and long. 

58% Cabernet Sauvignon,  29% Merlot, 13% Cabernet Franc

Savoury and spicy, good complexity, with ripe blackcurrant and plum flavours. Good tannin support.

Merlot, Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon combine in this outstanding full bodied dry and powerful blend, which is made from hand picked grapes grown in the Gimblett Gravels Winegrowing District’s Cornerstone and Ngakirikiri vineyards. 

The grapes were fermented with wild yeasts, which provides diverse depth and flavours to the wine, which has flavour notes of black olives, dried herbs and black currant notes. The wine was aged in French oak for 20 months and bottled unfiltered, which accentuates its gritty, smooth, powerful cedar notes.

Here is a wine for the long term cellar... Or decant and enjoy now.

Vineyard Sites - Cornerstone Vineyard lies at the heart of the renowned Gimblett Gravels viticultural region, strategically positioned at the junction of Gimblett Road and State Highway 50 in Hawke?s Bay. This area is celebrated as New Zealand?s premier Bordeaux red grape-growing region, and it?s easy to see why. The vineyard?s unique terroir, composed of riverbed stones and gravels, challenges the vines, leading them to produce a limited yield of small, intensely coloured, and flavourful berries. The resulting grapes give rise to wines with rich, mouth-filling tannins and a depth of character that speaks to the harsh yet rewarding growing conditions. 

Vinification - The grapes were carefully handpicked, then crushed and fermented in small 3-tonne open fermenters. Each batch was hand-plunged and allowed varying periods of post-ferment skin contact to enhance complexity and structure. After pressing off, the wine underwent malolactic fermentation and was aged in a mix of French (90%) and American (10%) oak barriques, adding subtle layers of flavour and depth. 

Tasting Notes - Enticing aromas of freshly sanded wood, new leather, anise, and spice draw you in. On the palate, sweet dark red fruits, plums, and berry pie flavours shine through. Grippy, robust, dry tannins balance a smooth, sweet, slightly charry oak profile. This wine is drinking well now but will develop even more complexity with ageing.

Harmonie du Soir is French for evening harmony and is the evocative name for this outstanding red made from grapes grown on the small Puriri Hills Vineyard in the Clevedon Hills, south of Auckland.

The wine's name is taken from Baudelaire?s reflection on sensory magic, the condition of all natural elements being in harmony for a brief moment, which is certainly appropriate for such a high quality wine, modelled on the best from Bordeaux. 

Puriri Hills founder Judy Fowler takes her inspiration from Bordeaux for all her wines, which are solely made from red grapes and all blends with Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot playing starring and supporting roles.

She suggests this dark, spicy red can be cellared for at least 15 years in cool dark cellar conditions.